Last week, Paul encouraged Timothy to put a stop to the false teachers he was dealing with by using love, a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith.

These sources of Christian love are are expressed in this way to make clear their incredible contrast with the methods of the false teachers. This week’s passage expands on that idea. Look at our passage, 1 Timothy 1:6-7.

Some, namely the false teachers, have wandered away from these expressions of love: a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith. Paul often uses the concept of wandering away from the faith in his pastoral letters, sometimes even stronger than he does here. In 1:19, he speaks of those who have “rejected the faith”; in 4:1, he uses the word “abandon.”

So we have some apparent leaders in the community, if not in the church as well, who have walked away from the faith. Instead, they’ve turned to meaningless talk. This idea relates back to the endless speculation he referred to in verse 4.

These men want to be teachers of the law, but they can’t because they don’t know what they are talking about, due to their meaningless speculations and endless talk. Nor do they know much about what they so confidently affirm, the meaning of the Scriptures. They are simply chattering, without any substance to what they say.

Apparently, when I was a child, I talked a lot, probably most of it meaningless chatter. I can remember my dad using the phrase “Your lips are flapping again…” Most of what I had to say wasn’t wrong, I’m sure. It was just unnecessary chatter; it was noise. And it was probably about things of which I knew nothing.

Now, as an adult, as a minister, I must watch myself closely, as we all must, that we aren’t simply “letting our lips flap.” Are we speaking about what we know? Or is it useless speculation and meaningless talk?

I don’t want my words to be useless and meaningless. I want what I say to be based upon God’s life-giving Word. I want the things I write to be helpful to others; not a hindrance. In the next few verses of this chapter, Paul will transition to the Law, and then to the Gospel, both of which are a much better use of our words than the pointless drivel he address here.

My prayer is that I can recognize the difference before it comes out of my mouth.

How do you monitor what comes out of your mouth before you speak it? What works for you? You can leave your thoughts in the comments section below.

There are a lot of counterfeit gospels out there today. Have you noticed? The problem with a counterfeit is that it only needs to be a little bit wrong to still be wrong. It doesn’t take a major error to go off course. Take a ship, for example. A course adjustment of only a degree or two doesn’t make a drastic change right away, but the destination will be miles away from what is intended.

In our passage for this week, Paul started off his letter to Timothy by encouraging him to avoid such counterfeits. Take a look at 1 Timothy 1:3-5.

My wife and I had the opportunity to visit the Treasury Department when we were in Washington DC a few years ago. It was pretty fascinating learning about our nation’s currency.

One thing that really stood out to me was how counterfeit money is identified. Treasury agents don’t study counterfeit money in order to identify counterfeit money. If they studies the fakes, they wouldn’t be able to identify new fakes because they wouldn’t know their distinct characteristics. Instead, they study the real thing; they know legitimate money intimately.

By knowing the real thing so well, they can spot a fake almost immediately.

Paul is telling Timothy the same thing here. Timothy is to instruct certain men not to teach counterfeit messages. They are worthless, only creating controversy and problems.

What were these men teaching?

How often do you sort of skip over the greetings found in the opening verses of the New Testament letters. I think most of us do. I mean, after all, it’s just a greeting, right? I’m not so sure.

Take a look at our passage for this week. It’s found in 1 Timothy 1:1-2. And it’s much more than just a greeting.

Paul packs a lot of doctrine and theology into these two simple, opening verses of his letter. Let’s take a brief look at a few of them.

Paul first introduces himself, and gives his qualification to write this letter. He is an apostle. Paul doesn’t always include this; sometimes he introduces himself as a “servant” (Philippians) or even as “prisoner” (Philemon). His claim to be an apostle is used only when there may be a challenge to his authority, such as there was in 1 Corinthians, or Galatians.

He then goes on to tell who gave him this apostleship: God our Savior. His authority is not self-acquired. It comes from God and Christ Jesus. And not just that, but God our Savior and Christ Jesus our hope. God is frequently referred to as Savior in the Old Testament, but rarely in the new. And outside of the Pastoral Epistles, Paul never calls God our Savior. He reserves this term for Christ alone.

And the description of Christ as our hope is packed full of meaning as well. Paul isn’t using hope as mere wishful thinking, but as something more. Christ as our hope is something to earnestly expect. This carries implications of Christ’s return for the completion of our salvation, just as God is described as Savior.

Paul leaves his worshipful description behind, and indicates his primary audience, Timothy, his true son in the faith. Whether this means that he led Timothy to Christ, or was something more like a legitimate adoptive father is unclear. Whichever the case, Paul’s words convey encouragement to Timothy, and sets the stage for his acceptance by the church at Ephesus, who may have questioned his authority due to his age. Paul dispels that question from the very start.

If you’ve been around JeffRandleman.com much, you know that I post a weekly passage that I’m memorizing. Over the past couple of years, I’ve issued a challenge to memorize with me. In 2011, it was the Sermon on the Mount. For 2012, it was various passages from all over the Bible. Many of these had been previously memorized, and were refreshed. Others were newly added to my memory.

I’ve had several people tell me that they are challenged by that, and many have taken that challenge and excelled in it, memorizing Scripture weekly. A few have told me that they’ve never realized the benefits of Scripture memory until they actually did it, and had a few passages committed to memory.

In 2013, my goal is to memorize the entire letter of 1 Timothy. This letter was written by Paul to a young man, who he called his “son in the faith,” Timothy. Together with 2 Timothy and Titus, these three letters are often referred to as The Pastoral Epistles, because they contain so much pertinent information about life, faith and ministry.

This year, though, I’m adding a bit of a twist. Instead of just posting the passage and a brief though about it each week, I’ll be adding some commentary and devotional thoughts to each section of Scripture. I think this will help keep things in context as we work our way though a significant section of Paul’s writings over the course of a year.

By way of a brief introduction, 1 Timothy was written by Paul, as mentioned above, to Timothy. Based on the information we know about Paul and the early church, the best date for the authorship of 1 Timothy was somewhere between 63 and 66 AD, although a few have placed it as early as 55 AD.

While it is primarily written to young Timothy, there are some indicators in the text that suggest that Paul intended for it to be read and heeded by the entire congregation, most likely the one at Ephesus.

1 Timothy gives some good insight into Paul’s own ministry, as well as instructing Timothy, the early church, as well as the church of today on issues such as church leadership, living in godliness, and resisting false teachings and doctrines.

1 Timothy is well suited to give some incredible input into our daily spiritual lives, as well as our corporate church life.

And it’s well worth memorizing.

I hope you’ll join me in committing this significant letter to memory throughout 2013.

Will you join me in memorizing 1 Timothy in 2013? If not, what do you intend to memorize this year? You can share your thoughts in the comments section below.

This is the last week of 2012. And this is the last passage we will memorize together this year. I think it’s a fitting passage for the end of a year and the beginning of the next. This week’s passage is found in Ephesians 3:20-21:

This week, we focus on new beginnings. Out with the old, in with the new. We write New Year’s resolutions. We celebrate a fresh start.

But our celebration of a New Year pales in comparison of what Christ can do, has done, and will do. In fact, we can’t even imagine it!

And it goes beyond a New Year celebration; this is cause for celebration eternally!

Thanks for joining me in memorizing several important and inspiring passages this year. I hope you’ll join me as I memorize the book of 1 Timothy in 2013.

Happy New Year!

What was your favorite passage we memorized this year? You can leave your thoughts in the comments section below.

This week’s passage contains some of the best news ever spoken. On the day of Christ’s birth, an angel appeared to the shepherds and announced that the long awaited Messiah had finally come.

Take a look at the passage. It’s found in Luke 2:10-12:

The message was delivered. It was simple. It was quiet. It was unexpected. And it was unassuming.

And yet is was the greatest news ever, profound beyond comprehension. And the effects have rippled through the generations, and even now more than ever, these words offer the hope and peace that the world needs to hear.

We have a Savior. God’s promise has been realized.

Merry Christmas!

What aspect of this greatest news ever stand out to you the most? You can leave your thoughts in the comments section below.

Christmas is only nine days away. The season is upon us. It’s been hard for me to grasp that fact this year. Living in Florida, with much warmer temperatures than I’m used to, has made it tough to grasp the fact that Christmas is upon us. I think I’ll decorate a palm tree next year to help out with this.

But it’s here. And it’s just as crucial to remember this event as it ever was, especially in light of recent events in our nation.

This week, let’s memorize Matthew 21:1:

Our world is a tough one to live in today. Tragedy seems to be all around us. Difficulty and strife are rampant. Our world seems to be headed further and further away from God and Christ.

But, in the Old Testament, God continually uses difficult circumstances, and godless nations, to bring the Israelites back to him. What seemed to be terrible, God used for good.

And then, in a small barn near Bethlehem, a baby was born among very difficult circumstances. There was a census where everyone had to return to their family home to register. Mary was young, scared, and very pregnant. And then to top it all off, she delivered this child in a dirty barn!

Our son is due to arrive in this world on January 8th. If we were faced with having to travel back to Missouri in the next couple of weeks to register for a government census, and our son was born in the stall of a barn on the way, I can just about guarantee that the stress levels of both my wife and myself would be through the roof!

But the angel told Joseph, this child “will save his people from their sins.”

That must have given these young parents hope.

That still gives us hope, even today.

Merry Christmas!

Will you share the Christmas passages on Christmas day with your family this year? You can leave your thoughts in the comments section below.